Bosh being Bosh. Credit: Michael Laughlin (Sun Sentinel)
Heat fans are the worst! Credit: Micaela Hood (Sun Sentinel)
Tony Parker breakdancing? San Antonio Express #15
After a relatively successful pre-recession Wall Street career Michael Rosenband had a change of heart on career path. Now he is coaching Baltimore’s Carven High School baseball team. 
The team isn’t successful in the Win/Loss column, but it’s one of those tales of wins aren’t everything. Rosenband tries to impart his business knowledge on his students as well as expose them to historical aspects of Negro League baseball for enrichment. It’s both an admirable and interesting story of what he gives up to be a coach and make a difference.
Read complete story: Childs Walker - Baltimore Sun
Photo Credit: Lloyd Fox - Baltimore Sun
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Today’s local story arrives from the region where wagons are circled like no other, Buffalo. Tawan Slaughter (below) does it all: owns and coaches a team, mentors kids, and has several degrees to put a cherry on top. Did I mention Tawan is a woman and 29 years old.
How often do you see some one below 30 or a female as team owner? Granted the Buffalo 716ers are an obscure hyperlocal team that doesn’t even have players yet, nonetheless, ownership is an accomplishment that you can’t knock. Tawan’s candor is also very refreshing, she is realistic about the challenges that come along with running a team, specifically, the benefits for her players.
“ I’m looking for my players to be here one or two years and then sign on the professional level. Everyone knows the situation up front. There’s no secrets. I tell people you’re not going to move here from North Carolina and think that you’re going to have a free ride, it’s not going to happen.”
Keeping it real much? Well, I wish her success.
Read complete article at [Buffalo News]
Published: Rodney McKissic - Buffalo News
Photo Credit: Robert Kirkham - Buffalo News
Chris Bosh doing a mid-air Heisman pose or some ballet maneuver I can’t name. Belinelli standing with his hands flailed out with his “O shit, kept that mess away from me” face. And Boozer, well, he is being Boozer. “Poetry in motion” or not. Credit: Charles Trainor JR (Miami Herald) #33
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Irony, much? Joey Crawford (left) is probably the most hated referee in all of professional sports because of his bad reputation. John McEnroe (right) has a well documented history of verbal abuse against Tennis officials. Naturally these two opposing forces find common ground to have a civil conversation without the universe collapsing around these two gems. Photo Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler (Getty Images)
Part 1
Another year another piece on a Black QB facing some form of “racism”. This year it’s whether or not RG3 is a cornball brother. Fact is last year into this year issue was whether Cam Newton was a mature professional hinting racial overtones. Year before that was if Vick could stop running and be a traditional pocket passer like winning white QB counterparts. And I could go on and on mentioning pieces on issues with other black QBs such as Vince Young, Tavaris Jackson, McNabb, Jamarcus Russell, Culpepper that had some hint of potential racism… Many may read these stories year after year as proof positive that there is no progress in perception of Black NFL quarterbacks and see them getting raw deal. I don’t. I actually see a bright spot. That fact that we actually have black QBs to talk/write about positively or negatively is progress. Fact that cannot be disputed… This 12-13’ NFL Season 11 Black Qbs have started at least one game: Terrelle Pryor, Thaddeus Lewis, Jason Campbell, Bryron Leftwich, Charlie Batch, Colin Kaepernick, Mike Vick, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton, and Josh Freeman. Others who have gotten snaps but no starts are Tyrod Taylor and Joe Webb. Not even going to mention number of QBs who are 3rd string or serve as scout team players. I’m going out on a ledge and saying there might be more Black quarterbacks getting a NFL paycheck now then all of NFL history combined. So this idea that black Qbs are not getting a fair shake is faulty. While some people may linger on some negative stereotypes black QBs might receive on the basis of their color, the people(Owners/GMs) that hand out the green appear to think otherwise at least in the Pros. College/HS perception of black QBs is another topic for another day. Of course, if want to focus on lack of diversity or stereotypes specific NFL players face look no further than the plight of black kickers. How many black kickers have there been in NFL history? Not much I assume yet no outrage, why? Let me guess, kickers aren’t people, eh. Probably more reasonable explanation is kickers don’t sell papers, books or cause viewers to tune in to programs. Think about that…
Part 2. 82 athletes across all sports were surveyed for thoughts on issues related to sports and race…. 82…. 82…. 82. Let’s break it down with random numbers. 10% of 82 is 8. 20% is 16. 41% is 33. 50% is 41. 75% is rounded to 62. Percentages are less impressive when we look at what actual number is associated with them especially when percentages are compared.
For example, for study question “D” 14% of athletes felt THIS and 30% felt THAT. Using 82 as sample number that translates to 11 vs 24 athletes respectively. Just 13 more people. How significant is that? There are ways to test significance but that’s involves too much jargon and maths, won’t mentions now. What I will say is percentages are ok to look at it but remember what they mean in relation to sample size. As far as sample… Several female athletes were anonymously quoted. Not trying to be disrespectful or sexist but when was the last time a female athlete has made the news for any reason, positively or negatively? Exactly. Very rarely if ever do we see ESPN’s bottomline mention an arrest report, potential scandal, or some act of racism regarding female athlete. Honestly aside from Gabby Douglass has any black female athlete let alone any female athlete been relevant in the news (Of course, her case is special, oddly enough it was black people who were tearing her down. The self-hate is real in the streets). So when a female athlete is asked on perception of black athletes is she referring to her experience or the experience of male athletes. They share so many different expereinces how can either speak on each other’s respective experience. Of course, the black male athlete experience is not uniform either. I feel comfortable saying NBA/NFL player experience is much more different than that of black MLB, NHL, Lacrosse, Nascar, Golf, and misc. sports athletes experiences. The colorline has been erased in football/basketball with blacks athletes generally being over-represented. As for other sports this is not the case, there quite literally could be one black male of color if any on a given roster of those non-foobtall or basketball sports. Could expect much more pronounced isolation with lack of black counterparts with common experiences to lean on and pressure of having to be “the it” black guy. So would be interested in survey itemizing perception of athletes by gender and sport for better idea of perception. Don’t feel comfortable at all with general study lumping all athletes together. Obviously, for many reasons mentioned and not mentioned they’re different.
Now on their finding that media members are the least color blind compared to fans, owners, players, etc… Guess what, media members are trying to sell papers or get editorial pieces viewed. What better way to get attention than bringing in a charged topic like race to their work? Yeah, sounds very cynical but do you blame me for thinking so?
Now, the participants of the roundtable suggested there should be more black sports journalists to combat pieces from primarily white journalists depicting black athletes negatively by providing their own diverse points of view. Fair enough. There aren’t many black journalists but is infusing the market with more black journalists really going to help? Hypothetically it could but don’t know how. Are they supposed to write only on race issues? I don’t think they want to be pigeon holed into that niche even if it means collecting a check. What I do know is Black Journalists have no mention of Cornball Brother gate on their official website. If there was a time to jump on issue it would be this. Too bad it appears they fear being critical because might offend one of their own, damn shame. If can’t be critical on this topic don’t be critical on anything else.
Part 3 Social Activism: Brendon Ayanbadejo & Etan Thomas deserve all the props in the world for taking a stand for what they believe but being mentioned in same breath as Jim Brown & Ali as far as on and off the field/ring accomplishments = Blasphemy. And Miami Heat’s Trayvon Martin hoodie tribute as example of activism was the truth ultimately it’s easy to take a pic with hoodie on. It’s hard to get more involved. I’ll leave it at that…
Part 4
Minority Coaches - No argument here. It’s shameful black coaches don’t get HC jobs. What we need to keep in mind is the process of actually becoming a HC. Look at resume of most HC before they got their gigs. For the most part there is a direct line between becoming Graduate assistant for year or two, position coach for years, coordinator/position coach for some more years, then if lucky could get HC gig somewhere after you cut your teeth, there are no short cuts. Assuming their are individuals who have done necessary work that should afford them the right to become coordinator and eventually Head Coach need to factor one major thing… Who are the coaches that hire and develop black coaches to high level coordinator positions that are stepping stones to HC position. Look at recent Super Bowl and College national championship coaching staffs. How “black” are they? it’s like this, if winning coaches who set standard for coaching excellence don’t hire or develop black coaches how can you expect other teams/schools to hire black coaches?
Final thought…
We focus too much on banal things. Even if an athlete is being singled out because of race we need to keep perspective. They are exceptions. They are rich and physical specimens who could defend themselves. Also ultimately they are judged on W-L record not race. What need to focus on are little guys…. A black TV reporter who gets fired for talking back to troll who said something about her hair, a black law student who gets picked on by professor who might not like fact that race might have been factor for admission, joe blow walking on the street then getting stopped by cops for no good reason other than being black and suspicious, and I could go on and on. Let’s keep it real, they are real people with real issues that stories go untold yet may be more harmful than plight of high profile professional athletes. Now, can we finally stop recycling the tired “burden of the black QB” tale please? Pretty Please.
Rant over..